Censorship

A Stanislaus County school board banned a celebrated but controversial piece of Chicano literature from its high school classrooms this week because trustees and the superintendent believe "Bless Me, Ultima" contains too much profanity. The Newman Crows Landing Board of Education voted 4 to 1 Monday night to strip the coming-of-age novel by Rudolfo Anaya from the sophomore required reading list at Orestimba High School.

The order by China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology was unprecedented in scope: All personal computers sold in the country as of July 1 would have to include government-sponsored Internet filtering software. But just how the plan, which would potentially affect hundreds of millions of computer users, would be carried out remains unclear.

Drama students at Corona del Mar High School were excited to push the envelope with a spring production of the Bohemian love story "Rent." But the drama teacher at the Newport Beach school says the principal told him to cancel the show because she disapproved of the gay characters in the musical. Fal Asrani, the school's principal, disputes that she pulled the plug on the production, saying that she only asked to review the script, according to district officials.

In his baggy shorts hanging below the knees, Puma sneakers and spiky hair, Wang Kangkang is hip to the present, clueless about the past. Although he comes often to see the nightly ceremony of the Chinese flag being lowered at Tiananmen Square, he doesn't know what happened here in 1989 and doesn't really care. "Well, it happened before I was born," the 19-year-old said, looking down at his sneakered feet as the crowd shuffled out of the vast expanse of concrete on a balmy evening.

By the time Iranian authorities drew the curtain this week, it was too late. Attempts to choke off coverage of massive protests and postelection street battles between dissidents and government forces came well after the American public had reset a nascent and evolving impression of Iran, experts say. With the cooperation of the government, the global media buzzed in the days before the June 12 election with images of a youthful and exuberant Iran engaged in political debate.

Incensed when a government official hailed the conservative newspaper Kayhan as a paragon of dissent, a 20-year-old who lives in Southern Iran logged on to a popular website. The praise for the state-controlled daily was "the biggest political joke of the year," Ali wrote in a message posted on his profile. "I can't believe what a stupid nation we have and what a stupid president we have and that people are still following him."

An American scholar and freelance journalist who recently wrote about the growing strength of Taliban militants in Pakistan has been expelled, a media rights group said Saturday. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists expressed concern that the deportation of Nicholas Schmidle, who has written recently for the New York Times Magazine and the online magazine Slate, could presage heavier pressure on foreign journalists working in Pakistan.

Broadcasts by the private Geo television network resumed Monday in Pakistan more than 2 1/2 months after its transmission was blocked during a state of emergency. Geo News and its sister sports channel came back on the air hours after President Pervez Musharraf began a four-country trip to Europe, where he expected to face tough questions on media restrictions and human rights.

When the wife of a popular sportscaster grabbed the microphone at a pre-Olympics reception and blabbed about her husband's infidelity, the inevitable happened. An audience member with a cellphone captured the whole embarrassing episode, including the mortified husband trying to hush his wife and security guards fluttering about helplessly, and posted footage worthy of "The Jerry Springer Show" on Tudou.com, a Chinese clone of YouTube.

China has eased new Internet controls that had limited video-sharing to state companies, saying private competitors already operating in the fast-growing arena may continue. Any new video-sharing companies must comply with the rules, which took effect last week, the government said Tuesday. The rules appeared to be aimed at extending China's Web censorship as the Beijing Olympics approach and at preventing the distribution of unflattering videos.